A little over a year ago, I had a conversation with the tibbr product manager about his use of the social platform he was guiding through a rapid series of improvements. I was very curious to know why I rarely saw his posts on the corporate social media site, considering his role. He said something I’ll never forget, “You don’t see my posts in public forums because I’m posting in private groups, where the real work gets done.”

In that moment I realized something I should have seen long before…social media isn’t a new way to communicate. Social media is a digitally-enabled, searchable, metadata-rich and persisted method to do what we’ve always done, just more easily and with more value to the organization.

My perception of what I thought of as “Facebook for the enterprise” increased drastically. My thoughts on social media’s use cases expanded significantly beyond likes and shares on a public billboard. I saw why it was so much more coherent than email. I can get work done in public and private circles that make sense.

If you haven’t taken a serious look at how social media really benefits the enterprise, you should. You will be surprised.